The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution -- commonly
known as the Bill of Rights -- are the highest law of the land. Over the
200 years it's been in force, certain people -- usually politicians and
bureaucrats who wanted more power and found the Bill of Rights an inconvenient
obstacle (exactly as it was intended to be) -- have argued over its proper
interpretation.
During the Lincoln, Wilson, and second Roosevelt Administrations,
the Bill of Rights was openly violated and even set aside, using an ongoing
war as a handy excuse. As a result, the size and power of government grew
at the expense of individual liberties which, for the most part, were never
given back even when the war was over. Similar violations have been committed
in the name of the War on Drugs.
However no legal provision exists for the suspension of the
Bill of Rights, in time of war or any other emergency. Any government employee,
elected or appointed, from policeman to President, who violates it, no matter
what justification he offers, is a criminal.
This claim may appear strange or trivial, until we count
the cost of such violations, and realize that the events of September 11,
2001 could never have happened if the rule of law -- the highest law of
the land -- had been fully enforced as the nation's Founders intended.
If Constitutional limits on the power of government -- on
the President and Congress -- had been properly enforced, the kind of interference
typical of American foreign policy that has made people overseas hate us
and want to kill us would have been impossible.
And if the Second Amendment had been enforced, the September
11 killers would have faced aircraft containing armed passengers and would
probably never have thought of trying to hijack those planes.
So far, the government's response to its own terrible failures
of September 11 has been to imitate Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt, and
do its best to limit the freedom of Americans even further, passing laws
and creating regulations that violate nearly every one of the first ten
amendments and transform America into a police state.
And in a transparent and pathetic effort to look better in
its blundering, the government cites polls taken of a populace who have
been indoctrinated all their lives by establishment mass media and the public
schools -- and haven't the vaguest clue what their rights are, or what's
been done to them in war after war.
The fact is, crime of any kind, whether it kills six people
or six thousand, represents a diffuse threat, and can only be countered
with a diffuse defense. Individuals must be free to act -- as individuals
-- against it. Only the most stringent, energetic, and enthusiastic Bill
of Rights enforcement can guarantee that freedom to act.
Those Founding Founders who wrote the Bill of Rights made
sure it was written clearly, in plain language. They meant it to be understood
by everybody, not just lawyers and judges -- working for politicians and
bureaucrats -- attempting to "explain" it all away.
There is only one correct way to interpret the Bill of Rights.
Put yourself in the Founding Fathers' place: if you had just finished a
long, bloody shooting war against the biggest, most violently ruthless empire
on the planet -- and surprised yourself and everybody else by winning it
-- and the last thing you wanted was to find yourself, your children, or
their children under the heel of tyranny again, exactly what would you have
intended the Bill of Rights to mean?
Is it possible you would have given government -- which the
Founders saw as the natural enemy of human freedom, dignity, and hope --
the power to suspend the Bill of Rights? Or would you have wanted those
vital, life-giving rights protected by a new kind of government whose only
excuse for existing was to enforce them?
The Bill of Rights is what America is all about. Without
it, we'd be just like any other country with too much government. We'd be
like China, or Russia, or Germany without the Bill of Rights. As somebody
said, we'd be the world's biggest banana republic.
Every problem America ever had could have been solved by
enforcing the Bill of Rights. Every problem America has now could be solved
by enforcing the Bill of Rights. Every problem America will ever have will
be solved by enforcing the Bill of Rights.
All information posted on this web site is
the opinion of the author and is provided for educational purposes only.
It is not to be construed as medical advice. Only a licensed medical doctor
can legally offer medical advice in the United States. Consult the healer
of your choice for medical care and advice.